Oppenheimer’s Atomic Bombers

Russell Vandenbroucke

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Description

In 1943, something strange is going on in the New Mexican desert. By night, the starkly beautiful canyons of Los Alamos fill with the sound of exploding graphite — and by day, the crackle of scientific brainpower. OPPENHEIMER’S ATOMIC BOMBERS takes us into those secretive canyons to meet the cadre of brilliant scientists who worked there. With wisecracking physicist Dr. Richard Feynman as our guide, the race to create the atom bomb comes alive as a very human endeavor, filled with humor, playfulness and dread.

Production Info

Cast: 11 total (3 female, 8 male, doubling possible, extras)
Full Length Drama (about 120 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Period Costumes
Reviews

Press Quotes

“The master of ceremonies … is Richard Feynman, the bright, smart-alecky, eloquent physicist who was one of the youngest and brightest of the men brought into the project … J. Robert Oppenheimer [is] the dedicated scientist urging his team not to waste a moment, lest they waste lives … Without resorting to ultra-complex explanation, and with unobtrusive but welcome bursts of humor, the play handily suggests the tension and excitement of the immense problem solving that these men and women undertook. And to make sure that the science story is grounded in humanity, there are peeks at the domestic lives of the participants, tenderly in the case of the Feynmans and amusingly in the case of Fermi and his wife. Vandenbroucke’s particular contribution … has been to humanize the epic project by telling this extraordinary story clearly and entertainingly.” —Richard Christiansen, Chicago Tribune

“Vandenbroucke has wisely focused on the human dimension of the people who actually made the bomb rather than on arcane technical details, and we can see and feel the excitement of an isolated community charged with the greatest scientific discovery since the harnessing and manufacture of electrical energy … The final reaction to this energetic and enjoyable [play] is a deep sadness over the war at the heart of nationalistic mankind.” —Michael Lassell, L.A. Weekly

“It’s funny, sad, thought provoking, informative … and thus wonderful theater.” —Katy Compere Pendleton, Clarion Arts

“Crackles with wit and dark humor and draws you into the excitement felt by the scientists and their mission … a compelling, humanistic story.” —Jeff Rossen, Gay Chicago

About the Author

Author

  • Russell Vandenbroucke

    Russell Vandenbroucke's other plays include: ELEANOR: IN HER OWN WORDS, from the writings of Eleanor Roosevelt, which won an Emmy Award and was broadcast by PBS on American Playhouse; SCHOOL PLAY, inspired by the 50th anniversary of Brown v. The Board of Education; SOLDIERS CIRCLE, dramatizing Americans in the Army from recruitment through training to deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan, then home again; and BREAD AND PEACE, commissioned to commemorate the 150th birthday of Jane Addams, the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Adaptations include: THE TROJAN WOMEN (Euripides) into contemporary verse; Ibsen's AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE, transposed to Chicago and a polluted Lake Michigan; and HOLIDAY MEMORIES from two Truman Capote stories. Books: Truths the Hand Can Touch: The Theatre of Athol Fugard; collecting and editing The Theatre Quotation Book: A Treasury of Insights and Insults; and editing Contemporary Australian Plays, after being a Fulbright Senior Scholar Down Under. Other international experience: World Peace Fellow, Rotary International's Peace and Conflict Studies Center of Chulalongkorn University (Bangkok) where he adapted and directed AN EVENING WITH GLOBAL PEACEMAKERS; lectures on American culture and theatre in Finland, Rumania, and (then) East Germany for the U.S. State Department; talks in Vietnam, Japan, and Canada; and Palestinian American Research Center, faculty travel. He covered Italy's Spoleto Festival and South Africa's National Arts Festival for American Theatre magazine. Director: THE BLOOD KNOT in San Francisco, PROOF and A CHRISTMAS CAROL in Virginia, SNAPSHOT for the Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville, and many others as Artistic Director of Northlight Theatre including Ibsen's HEDDA GABLER, Anna Deavere Smith's FIRES IN THE MIRROR, and the premieres of Arnold Wesker's THREE WOMEN TALKING (also for radio) and Martha Boesing's MY OTHER HEART, supported by the Kennedy Center's Fund for New American Plays. Having directed OPPENHEIMER'S ATOMIC BOMBERS with Equity actors in Flagstaff (in rep with Brecht's GALILEO) and with students in Louisville, he looks forward to doing so after the film Oppenheimer has made audiences familiar with the play's backdrop.

About the Book

Book Information

Publisher BPPI
Publication Date 9/18/2024
Pages 100
ISBN 9798888560204

Special Notes

Special Notes

Licensees are required to include the original stage producers credits in the following form on the title page in all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play and in all advertising in which the full cast appears in size of type not less than ten percent (10%) of the size of the title of the Play:
The following must appear within all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play:
Oppenheimer’s Atomic Bombers is produced
by special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing Inc, NYC
www.broadwayplaypublishing.com